blog time

Past time, actually. I have been distracted by Facebook and incoming e-mails..but I expect to stay awake long enough to post today's blog TONIGHT. To encourage this, I am drinking iced coffee from this morning: as long as I don't reheat it, it is lovely and strong and makes me happy.

Oh, cool - this picture came in exactly where I wanted it.  Hooray!  Yes, I really was at my own workshop on Sat. and here I am, doing one of my favorite activities.

I am trying out Blogger's new(beta) system for posting. The good news is that pix are inserted where you want them (as they used to be before Blogger changed it) instead of at the top, which was a major cut/paste pain. It also puts the date on for when you actually post, not when you start writing...although I'm not sure this is a good thing. And they layout is giving me problems - spacing is weird.

Today, Marty and I went to an art opening: Abstraction, A Woman's View. Quite honestly, I'm not sure what the second part of that title means, but the work of the four artists was wonderful.  I know three of the artists; Freya Gervasi, a sculptor who works in alabaster and other sensual stone but does not have a website (tsk, tsk), Lisa Pressman, whose encaustic is lyrical, and Susan Lisbin who works in a number of mediums and whose paintings I would like to own. The fourth artist, Andrea Epstein, creates energetic, complex, mixed media monoprints. I was delighted to be introduced to her work.  While I didn't buy any art in the exhibit, I stopped to look at a case in the lobby filled with beautiful hand-blown glass. Before I knew it, this piece had come home with me. While the picture doesn't really show it as well as it should - it is a square drinking glass and the inside is a lighter blue.  This is so weird because I am not a blue person. OTOH - I have just finished a piece that is primarily blue--a color that I never use in my work.  Blue=calm and the curves and lines of this glass are nothing if not calm.  I strongly believe that the colors we work with during certain periods stand for elements we are either missing or emotions we are feeling at the time.

This has been such a good weekend!  I love teaching in my studio.  4-6 people is a perfect class size and a luxury for me, as well as a high degree of individual attention for them. Yes, it's work to rearrange everything in the place, and it's not fancy -- but it is such a pleasure to have a workshop there because there is such good karma in that space. Everyone who walks in there feels happy immediately. Me, too.

When I got home on Sat night, there was a package of paints waiting for me from C&T. My assignment: to print some fabric with those paints  and make a small work to send back to them for their booth at Market. I figured I'd better get busy, so I printed one piece of fabric. Tomorrow, I need to take the fabric and paints with me so I can print another piece with a different scale because I have only limited things to print with at home. Then I need to do something with the fabrics and send them back.

I also have to iron, roll, and ship my 2 yard pieces for the Art Cloth Network exhibit at the gallery in Houston, which opens Sept. 23. Before then,
I'll post info for anybody who lives or will be in Houston during Festival.
There was one other package that came last week that I had been waiting for.  Look how cute! A roll of MistyFuse that is 100 yds x 12".  What a perfect size for fusing small pieces of fabric!  I love this.

Busy week ahead.  My daughters have birthdays: Jessica on the 14th (today!) and Hilary on the 15th.  Friday night is the beginning of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which is early this year. For the first time in decades, I am not feeling up to making dinner for the family so we are going to Hilary's.  I will still make/bring something, but with my inflamed tendon on my left hand, I don't want to cook and prepare a ton of stuff.
I am trying to live with it and avoid hand surgery, which just doesn't fit into my schedule. The caffeine is wearing off and I am turning into a pumpkin, so good night.

messy

When I read this comment tonight on C&T's blog from an artist who took my class a couple of months ago, I hooted! A dubious distinction -- but true. "Rayna is the messiest teacher I’ve ever taken a class with…and it is really very fun to just throw the fabric around, glop paint all over and make a big mess (I’m still wearing my gloves though!)" My most recent mess was with soy wax and dyes -- and the six artists in class made drop-dead gorgeous fabrics. I didn't get a picture of Susan Callahan (Chef Susan, who used to post on QuiltArt years ago) but she came up from Maryland for the class and came with her sister Cindy, who is a spinner/weaver ready for something new. Cindy and Susan both have a great color sense -- here are some of their fabrics drying.Cindy is contemplating what to do next and this ended up being the fabric above, right. Brenda Schlechter and Janet Hopkins shared a table and Janet is admiring the fabric she printed with the tjanting after it came out of the steam pot. Sujatha used to do traditional batik in India and wanted to learn to use soy wax, so she came today and had a wonderful time. Sharing her table is Jill Williams, who is moving from traditional to quilting and is soaking up as many surface design and other processes as possible. She's really excited about moving to the art side of quilting and is dying to connect with other "art quilter wannabes" (as she put it) in Northern NJ. If you're out there, let me know and I'll put you in touch with Jill. Here is one of Jill's that we all thought was a beautiful composition. More pieces from everyone, drying on the floor. The colors are simply glorious! Sujatha has already posted the pix of these cotton napkins she batik'd and I hope everyone else will send me images of their work (and what they do with it) when it's finished. I started to write this blog on Sat. night but was too tired to finish it, so it is finally getting posted a day late.

rain, rain, go away

November is here and it's only September. The air is in the 60's and as I sit here near the open window I can hear the drumming of the drops on the roof of my car. It rained all day - a good day to stay in bed. But I was up and in the studio, setting up for my soy wax class tomorrow. It took me most of the day, since I had to rearrange the tables to be near the outlets and to do that, I had to move stuff that was already there. Ah, well - since I didn't walk this morning because of the rain, pushing tables around was my exercise for the day. Here is my 4x8 piece of Celotex on 3 sawhorses. It's a tabletop that I can pin right into and it is light enough to dismantle if I need to.(in theory) This view is looking toward my "gallery" wall from my roommate's side of the studio. I'll do my demo work here and two people will work on the other side of the table.This view is of the back wall (see the press and the Thermofax, left rear). I've pushed two tables together and four people can work here and share the large electric skillet. Before I left, I hung a bunch of my own batiks on the wall so the class could see what the possibilities are. Then I'll take them down and we'll use the design wall as a clothesline. There is plastic on the carpet where it meets the wall. Dyes are mixed, there is plenty of soda ash water, and all I have to do is pick up the donuts (aren't I nice?) and make a pot of coffee when I get there. My blue piece is almost finished - except for the edges -- but there are two in line ahead of it to be stitched.

evolution of a piece

Monday holidays throw me off, almost as if I had jet lag. It just doesn't seem normal-- whatever that means. Anyway, I started the week with a visit from Aleeda Crawley, who came to the studio today. We had lunch, chatted, laughed, and then Aleeda worked with thickened dyes while I mixed thin ones for Saturday's class in soy wax batik. Here she is, after steaming the piece and opening the package. Don't know what will happen after she washes it; i'm hoping it was soda ash water in the spray bottle she used - LOL.Tonight, it was back to work on the blue piece and after spending the entire evening on it, something was still bothering me. Most of it is sewn together already and while I liked what I had, it just didn't feel right. Then, as I picked up the last units to sew them to the rest, I realized what the problem was. The piece, loaded with horizontal lines, was too square. On impulse, I rearranged the pieces that were still loose and folded under a couple of sections (not ready to cut them yet) with my "what if?" idea. It wants to be a horizontal piece and it wants to be bigger. Stay tuned.

it's coming along

Oops -- must have been so tired last night I saved instead of published this. Not that you missed anything, but I wrote it so here it is, FWIW. Batteries in camera are now charged. No pictures tonight because my camera batteries died while Marty and I were at the park this afternoon. We spent about 1-1/2 hours strolling around the lake, watching the paddle boats, avoiding the kiddies on those scooter things, and generally having a peaceful, pleasant time. Tonight I put thread loops on the two pieces of art cloth that have been juried into an Art Cloth Network exhibit in Houston. Thread loops?? I spent a few days trying to figure out what these were and finally googled "thread loops." I don't sew, so I had no clue. But I know how to crochet, so I was able to make the loops once I understood what they were. It took me hours to make 4 loops and sew them to the back of the cloth but now I'm done. After I finished, I went back to work on the blue piece on the wall and am ready to be finished with it. I just have one more decision to make. Oh, deer was back in the yard tonight - this time by herself and just standing there, staring right back at me while I spoke to her. She didn't have anything interesting to say, however. I gave up and went back into the house. Tomorrow, my friend Aleeda is coming to visit my studio and she'll stay a while to play. It's 1:am - past time to go up.

miscellaneous

I had to stop and think about what I did today because I honestly couldn't remember for a minute. Oops. Slipping, aren't we? Slept late and when our daughter-in-law Nancy arrived at 9:45 with Kayla and Alexander in tow while Ross played golf, I hadn't had my coffee yet. Just then, Todd (Marty's youngest) called to say he was en route to Faux News Network and would be on the program in a few minutes as a guest commentator. We watch so little tv that we had no clue where the channel was, now that everything is digital - but we found it and watched him. This afternoon I had planned to work but ended up cooking several meals ahead of time, hoping I don't have to do this again for a couple of days. Later, while I was grilling dinner on the deck, there was some serious chomping going on a few feet away.There were two more at the edge of the woods - geesh! They didn't even run away when I yelled at them to scat (or whatever you say to deer). Vamoose? Get outa here? go away? It didn't matter - they behaved as though they owned the place. Did some more sewing together and filling in with the piece on the wall but I won't bore you with it tonight.

workshop Saturday

Well, we can now add more Thermofax addicts to the roster! Today's class in my studio was a relaxed, happy group who discovered that this way of printing was exactly what they needed. I gave them a list of resources where they could buy pre-done screens or have their own images made into screens - but at least one person has already decided that must have her own machine. Debbie Bein is standing with me at the back of the room, just before putting her image through the machine. Here goes!Debbie drove down with her friend Kate who lost no time getting to work with her images. Behind her on the wall are some of Debbie's prints, drying. And below Kate's picture are her wonderful screens of koi, which look like woodcuts but are not. Patricia Gaignat is a printmaker who works in mixed media and wanted to add Thermofax screens to her arsenal. Her work appeared in the first issue of Art Quilt Studio magazine, so if you have a copy, check it out. She will also have some work in other magazines, so I didn't photograph the pieces she brought with her. (but they are wonderful). She screened on paper as well as on cloth. Her drop cloth turned out so well that I was tempted to wrestle it away from her, but restrained myself. Sherry Shine found the class by pure luck and I was thrilled because she turned out not only to live in the same town as the studio but we have a couple of friends in common. We were happy to have discovered that we live in the next town from one another! She creates vivid story quilts by painting on cloth: here is one she brought to show us.And here she is with a print she made with her screens today. She brought a sketch she had made of Barak Obama and it made a wonderful screen.The energy was so good that even I felt energized after a whole day on my feet! In fact, tonight I started sewing together the blue piece on my wall. Now here's what happens when you work like this: once you trim and sew and trim again, you discover that some things don't fit where you had them when you arranged them on the wall. They overlapped in some places because - well, that's the way you put them up. Of course, everything gets smaller when you sew it and you have to make adjustments as you put the pieces back because now they don't fit. The challenge continues! It's like putting a puzzle together when you discover you don't have all the pieces. I love this way of working because it forces me to improvise and come up with design solutions along the way. (am I nuts? Isn't life challenging enough without MORE?) It also changes the piece - but I can't predict how. On that note - off to dreamland.

early bird special

The parking rate behind Penn Station in Newark was the bargain of the day. I left the house at 7:30 and at 7:55 pulled into the $20/day parking lot to discover that if you're in by 8:am out by 8:pm it's $6.69 (which translates to $8). It was so beautiful in NY today that I walked from 34th st to 42nd & Lex before I took the subway. Here is the view from the platform. I would probably have walked further but thought I needed to get where I was going sooner rather than later.When I got to the corner of 42nd & Lex, this building stopped me in my tracks!

It's a Jane Sassaman building!!! I have just sent her this picture.

I spent the day with my daughter Jessica - both of us, this afternoon, feet up on her couch in Brooklyn. She insisted that since I had never seen either Top Chef or ( ok - I admit it ) Project Runway -- I had to at least watch them this once (she had taped them). I have to admit, although I am not a tv watcher, that I can see how engaging they can be and I especially enjoyed Project Runway. This does not mean I will ever see it again but it was fun while it lasted.

When I left, I took the subway to Union Square so I could walk to the PATH train. Instead of the greenmarket there was a fair in the park and I was sorely tempted to wander around instead of going home right away. Nonetheless, I needed to get my car out of the lot before 8, didn't I? So I took just a few pictures.Isn't this a beautiful display??? These guys were knitting their wares. I didn't see a hat quite like the one he was wearing, however.

As I walked west on 14th St: art. I have no idea what it is, but I had to take it.

As I read these signs I wondered whether each shoe was $5 or whether they were $ 5 a pair. What do you think?

Finally, back in Newark, I took a picture of this bridge that stands across the street from the train station. I keep taking pictures of it - but I think this one is from a different angle than the usual shot.Turning in really early tonight in the hopes I will get enough sleep to be intelligable tomorrow.

ho hum

I spent the afternoon in the studio working on something I hadn't planned to do, but I pretty much got the place ready for Saturday's Thermofax workshop. Since I won't be around tomorrow, I had to make a list of things I need to bring on Sat. But I think I left the list there, which is par for the course. Well, I'll remember the coffee and donuts and nothing else is that important.

For the last several days, whenever I have a spare minute, I have been doing mindless sewing - strips. No idea what I will do with these or if I ever will do anything with them, but here, for your entertainment, are a few samples -- only one of which I like. In the meantime, I am quilting Urban Storefront and am almost done with it. Now I have to finish this blue thing on my wall but I keep looking at it and moving things around.When I took a picture of it I could see that my eye went directly to the the blue rectangle in the middle. Bleh.
So I moved it to the upper left and the piece flows better for me. But the blue rectangle is still bothering me . And really, all my attention goes to the upper right which is the strongest part of this piece (and the only section I have sewn together. Surprsingly, it works better for me upside down -- and now I see that I need another arch element in the corner where the blue is. Also, I think this wants to be larger but I don't feel like making it larger. So it will stay there till Sunday or Monday when I might have time to play around with it. But I have to fish or cut bait -- there are too many other things I have in my head and I want to be done with this. An unusual feeling.

Need to get up and out the door before 8: am so I can get to the Upper East Side by 10:00-10:30 and play mommy to my youngest tomorrow. It will be a long day, but one I look forward to.

back to art

First, thanks for all your sweet comments about my mother. I really don't mean to spend a lot of time on that subject but not only is life interfering with art, it is influencing art. And art is what I intended this blog to focus on when I began writing it almost 5 years ago. So... Tonight I had a really great art experience! I participated in the on-line quilt critique run by Sandra Sider and Lisa Chipetine. Having done it once, I am hooked and will do it again. There were five of us tonight who had submitted work for crit. I sent a piece I had already finished; one that my two crit groups had looked at and hadn't had any suggestions about, although something about the finished piece was bothering me. It is always good to have fresh eyes looking at something and Sandra is one of the best around. She has an outstanding eye and sensibility. I highly encourage you to submit a piece for critique (everybody is anonymous) and get intelligent, valuable feedback on your work. Great value on every level. And if you're too chicken to do it the first time around, watch and listen to the crit as a silent participant. Tonight I started stitching Urban Storefront, which I am raw-edge applique'ing to its background. Over the next few days I might get some more stitching done. Tomorrow, back to the studio to try and find two exhibit pieces I put away so carefully that I now cannot remember where I put them. Uh oh.

best laid plans redux

Mid-afternoon in the studio and I got a call that my mother is going back to the hospital because of an infection that can only be treated with IV. (was she there long enough to pick one up in the ER????) So, off I go. Never a dull moment.